Music RECORDS
SOFT ROCK BON IVER Bon Iver (4AD) ●●●●●
Everyone is better-off with a little soft-rock in their lives. Alt-smooth indie supergroup Gayngs proved it in 2010, when their nostalgic-pop LP, Relayted, topped many end-of-year polls. One of Gayngs’ most prominent members – Bon Iver’s rugged songbird Justin Vernon – has clearly come away from said union with the amber glow of 70s and 80s MOR all over him. (This should be taken as a compliment.)
Vernon’s second Bon Iver album – after 2008’s hugely popular backwoods confessional For Emma, Forever Ago – rolls out many of Gayngs’ seductive-rock tropes and stadium-band arrangements, while going easy on the self-made intimacies that accounted for Bon Iver’s much-revered debut. Where For Emma. . . won fans with its unplugged cabin-fever odes to isolation and heartbreak, Bon Iver is an altogether warmer, bigger, more welcoming beast – from the electric crescendos of opener ‘Perth’, to the string-drawn drive-rock of ‘Towers’, to the almost parodic AM balladry of ‘Beth/Rest’. Vernon’s fuzzy-focus falsetto is embraced by classic heart-rock, double vocals, midnight sax, tear-jerking riffage, Chicago keyboards and Live Aid drumming, and The List is such a sucker for the lot of it that it almost feels exploited by this record. Of course, we love it. (Nicola Meighan)
AMBIENT ELECTRO JUNIOR BOYS It’s All True (Domino) ●●●●● This fourth album from Canadian production duo Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus is an elegant, modern-sounding collection, but it doesn’t try to disguise an array of less fashionable influences, conscious or otherwise. Opener ‘Itchy Fingers’, for example, merges urbane electronic sounds with a nu- soul vocal reminiscent of ABC’s Martin Fry, while ‘Playtime’ is a resolutely mellow, hypnotic affair with more than a hint of ‘Fastlove’- era George Michael. Although things pick up later with the falsetto-voiced electro strut of ‘Second Chance’, and instrumental Balearic beat of ‘Kick the Can’, these songs are all firm growers: unselfconscious in their soothing repetition and just as equally suited to background listening or firm concentration. (David Pollock)
HEAVY POP WU LYF Go Tell Fire To The Mountain (LYF recordings) ●●●●● WU LYF, aka World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation, further refine their self-sufficient musical approach with this self-released debut. Recorded in a church in Manchester, each song plays out with an unmistakable sense of space and splendour, which offsets their often apocalyptic imagery. The epic, cascading musical backdrops are at times joyous and triumphant, and at others defiantly rough and urgent. The fact that you can barely make out anything Ellery Roberts says through his manic, raspy drawl is besides the point. There are times when the whole thing reeks of Modest Mouse and Manchester Orchestra, even with WU LYF’s unique battle-cries rubber-stamped all over. But last time we checked, that wasn’t a bad thing. (Ryan Drever)
PUNK POP SHONEN KNIFE Free Time (Damnably) ●●●●● Despite this 30-year veteran Japanese all-girl, punk-pop trio being down to just one remaining founder member (guitarist/ singer Naoko Yamano) these days, their reserves of winning daftness remain plentiful. Yamano’s lyrics aren’t getting any more sophisticated (‘yummy, yummy rolled cake’ runs the delightful ‘Rock’n’Roll Cake’), nor her English pronunciation much better (‘I’d like to give you a wose,’ she sings on the gleefully melodic ‘Capybara’, which also comes in a techno version), and Free Time inevitably gets pretty annoying. But if a chorus line like ‘Oooout break! Outbreak of jellyfish!’ sung over fizzing power-chords doesn’t raise at least a fleeting smile, you probably need to lighten up a bit. (Malcolm Jack)
80 THE LIST 23 Jun–21 Jul 2011
ELECTRO POP THE JAPANESE WAR EFFORT Surrender To Summer (Song, By Toad) ●●●●●
Portobello surf-pop; Meadows skate-rock; Leith Walk chillwave; call it what you will: this hazy, iridescent offering from Jamie Scott, aka The Japanese War Effort and one half of Conquering Animal Sound, is gorgeous: a lo-fi, scorched soundtrack to a dreamy Scottish summer. Scott has a brilliant tendency to imbue his fuzzy electronic reveries with bright melodic narratives, from the blissful, glitchy grunge-pop of ‘Summer, Sun, Skateboard’, to the charred techno-folk of ‘Pool Attendant’. It’s available on 10-inch coloured vinyl, replete with complimentary sweets: further incentive, were it required, for taking this record to your heart. (Nicola Meighan)
SYNTH POP WASHED OUT Within and Without (Weird World) ●●●●● In 2010, the ‘chillwave’ rolled in, bringing the sun-bleached flotsam and jetsam of Toro Y Moi, Neon Indian, Ducktails and others. Some may already bored of ‘glo-fi’’s gauzy blurs (Toro Y Moi is time-travelling past the 80s towards 70s electro- funk now; Ducktails is leaning to 90s surf-rock), but Ernest ‘Washed Out’ Greene is sticking with what he first wooed us with on his beautifully blurry ‘Life of Leisure’ EP. Out his bedroom; now recording with Merriweather Post Pavillion’s producer, Greene builds on his shimmering bliss-pop, but thank- fully not over-frilling it. Soporific machine beats on ‘You and I’ (with whispery vocals from Caroline Polachek) and ‘Eyes Be Closed’ continue to dazzle, and allow him a lot longer in the sun. (Claire Sawers)
ODDBALL POP REISSUE PAUL MCCARTNEY McCartney II (Commercial Marketing) ●●●●● A relative flop in 1980, McCartney II is a work of bonged-out pop genius. The ‘hits’ – dork disco gem ‘Coming Up’ and the beautiful ‘Waterfalls’ – although wonderful, only hint at the oddness within. ‘Temporary Secretary’ confounds with its percolating electro synth line and out-of-tune acoustic guitars. Then there’s the not-quite reggae of ‘Darkroom’; sounding uncannily like drum ’n bass, and the graceful Vaughan Williams-via- Eno pastoralism of ‘Summer’s Day Song’. Even more adventurous are the b-sides and unreleased tracks included here. ‘Check My Machine’ reimagines the Grange Hill theme as loping banjo funk, while ‘Secret Friend’ is cosmic bliss, all dis- embodied vocals and bossa beats. Thumbs aloft. (Stewart Smith)